U.S. Green Building Council – Northern California Chapter (USGBC-NCC)

Our engagement with the U.S. Green Building Council – Northern California Chapter (USGBC-NCC), one of the largest and most active chapters with the USGBC, began with communications support for the chapter’s Building Health Initiative (BHI), an unprecedented coalition of 40 world-class companies and organizations from multiple industry sectors transforming procurement strategies, fostering healthier communities, and, ultimately, reframing green building as a public health issue.

Our role as a communications partner initiated with supporting the launch of the Initiative’s inaugural Building Health Forum, a gathering hosted in San Francisco that welcomed more than 275 renowned experts and thought leaders pioneering the movement toward healthy buildings and healthy communities.

WHAT WE DID

As the Building Health Initiative’s story stewards, we worked to advance the BHI mission through customized communication tools, including generating announcements and media engagement for the ‘Buyers Club’ Working Group and for the Building Health Forum. We also managed the event’s media relations, inviting various influential local and trade press to the daylong event.

We took advantage of the unique opportunity to work with leading voices from several organizations to align on similar building and health topics. By using the agenda of the event as the basis for contributing articles, we gained the ability to curate joint authored content by multiple experts and secure strategic placement targeted to the built environment.

Social media and digital promotion was an important part of our launch strategy for the Building Health Forum. We took the lead on initiation of the Twitter handle and outreach for @_BuildingHealth prior to the event, as well as stimulating the #BuildingHealth conversation among ourselves and the many partners engaged at the event.

In the course of our work, we also generated tools and materials for internal communications to engage with BHI members, counseling members on communications best practices to take advantage of the group’s work from within their own organizations.

The dialogue on furthering the movement toward safer and healthier building practices and products is only beginning, and our work with the USGBC-NCC and Building Health Initiative continues for a collective effort toward a restorative environment.